Fantavision

"An amazing and fantastic display of fireworks!"

Fantavision, an original game brought to you by Sony, is one of the few first generation games that truly projects what the PlayStation 2 is graphically capable of. And by doing that, Fantavision is a game that can simply wow and amaze you by its realistic looking and flashy fireworks, which in turn gives off a massive display containing hours of addictive and possibly endless gameplay.

Story - Fantavision has no story.

Graphics - What can I say? The graphics in Fantavision absolutely made my jaw drop, especially while playing this game with the lights off. The fireworks that are blasting and exploding everywhere on the screen is a sight to behold, and sounds realistic as much as it appears. There are many landscapes you'll be playing on, such as a normal city, outer space, a space city, and an mysterious vortex. This game alone shows how the PS2 is capable of producing sparkling graphics in the line of the first generation games.

Gameplay - Fantavision is a puzzle game with a simple premise - use the left analog stick to control the line cursor as different colored flares rise up from the bottom of the screen and into the sky. As they are flying upwards, you must ''capture'' the flares with the line cursor. Once your manage to collect three flares of the same color, whether it be blue, red, or green, you can press the Circle button to detonate the flares, causing a burst of fireworks to appear on the screen. However, if you fail to detonate the flares, your energy bar will decrease, and if it empties completely, it's game over. Sure, it sounds easy, but as you go on to the later stages, things get much more hectic, and that is where the advanced strategies come in.

What strikes Fantavision as an interesting puzzle game is it's original ingenuity and concept, because a simple fireworks game was transformed into a game that requires advanced techniques to achieve bigger scores and the ability to make it to the end of the stage. Instead of just detonate only three flares of the same color, you can also link flares together in chains, which is called a ''Daisy Chain''. For example, detonating only one chain of one color is regularly called a Daisy. However, if you detonate, say, three red flares and three blue flares chained together, it would be called a 2 Daisy Chain. When you also detonate flares, the combo number appears also.

There are many more strategies. By using wild flares along with normal flares, you can possibly create massive Daisy chains and combos, therefore netting you tons of extra points. There are also power ups you can collect, such a Bonus Points, Energy Ups, and Star Icons. You can collect Star Icons to spell out the words STARMINE, which brings you into a Starmine Bonus stage where you can detonate tons of flares to gain more points.

There are 8 stages total, with Normal and Hard difficulties. There is also a Replay Mode. In the U.S. version, there has been an added Versus Mode. There are a few secrets as well that are unlocked once you beat the game.

Sound - The background music is alright, somewhat soothing and peaceful for a fireworks game. It's barely memorable.

Replay Value - In my opinion, Fantavision has medium replay value. In case your bored and want to play a good puzzle game, you can play this and try to master clearing the stages, especially on Hard difficulty. Unfortunately, the game in single player is only eight stages, and the experience lasts roughly for an hour. Once you master the game you may want to test your skills against someone in Versus Mode.

To rent or to buy? Well, Fantavision is a good purchase for good puzzle game. The PS2 doesn't have too many puzzle games out there, and this is one to pick up alone for the graphical experience. Try playing it with the lights out to see what I mean. The game will also shine in Versus Mode if you want to play against a friend. Fantavision is a great and unique game, and it's fair addictiveness makes up for it's short play through. I'd say buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/21/02, Updated 07/21/02